Mental Health Awareness week, 13th-19th May

Mental Health Awareness Week—led by the Mental Health Foundation, our partners in the Health and Wellbeing Alliance—will run 13th-19th May this year, with the theme for the week being ‘Body Image – how we think and feel about our bodies’.

Body image is increasingly recognised as a factor that can negatively affect people’s self-esteem and mental health. Last year, a national stress survey found that 47% of young people aged 18-24 had felt so stressed by body image and appearance that they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope.

The Mental Health Foundation will be publishing a literature review of the evidence in this area, along with the results of a UK-wide survey of how people in 2019 feel about their bodies, and how they feel their body image affects their lives and wellbeing,. This will include how body image affects children and young people, adults, and people in later life.